Jagmati Sangwan of All India Democratic Women's Organisation (AIDWA), spoke in the “Idea of India” conclave on the challenges today. She felt that the continuous assaults on the democratic values of citizens are a byproduct of the increasing communalization of the society. Our struggle on the ground against such forces will have to take into account the overt or covert support that the state machinery is extending towards these forces. It is necessary to create a common platform in which all the secular, democratic and progressive forces can come together to resist such attacks. She also thinks that the continuous ignoring by the mainstream, corporatized media of such communal attacks has created a need for the alternative media as an important tool in this struggle.